


Cursed

by katrinawritesthings



Category: SHINee
Genre: Brotp, Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 05:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12881301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: tfw the stray kitty you’ve had for years is actually a cursed human and then you accidentally break the curselook at these v importantwitchygwisookLooks“Wait, you want us to make you a cat again?” Eunsook asks. Finally she doesn’t look amused by everything anymore and is frowning in confusion at Jonghyun. It’s Taemin that answers though, as he nods and steps forward.“He liked being a cat,” he says, “and, I mean. I liked him being my cat.”tumblr





	Cursed

The sun is warm on the back of Taemin’s neck as he sits in the dirt, warm and pleasant and friendly. He reaches under his lamb’s ear plant and grabs another handful of clovers, pinching them at the roots and tugging them out of the earth. Glancing them over quickly for any lucky ones, he tosses them behind him in the growing pile of weeds. If he squints between the fuzzy leaves he can see a clump of sourgrass is next and he sighs, tugging his glove tighter before plunging his hand back in. He hates pulling these.

He scuffs up the dirt a little bit under them to hopefully make this easier, then grabs as close to the ground as possible and prays. Teeth digging into his bottom lip, he pulls and grins wide when he feels the satisfying give of a whole root instead of the mocking snap of the stems just breaking off in his fingers. Nice. He pulls the flowers out, plucks off one with a thicker stem, wipes it down with the damp rag he stuck in the collar of his shirt, and puts the end in his mouth to chew while he works. Nice.

And then not nice, for two seconds later a stray bit of pollen invades his nose and he sneezes, the flower falling out of his mouth and into the dirt.

“Shit,” he mumbles as he sniffles and rubs his nose. A meow answers him; looking up, he finds the stray cat that decided to move into his garden some years ago creeping out of the lamb’s ear bush. The look the cat is giving him is judgemental and he snorts, reaching over to boop his head. “Sorry, majesty, did I wake you?” he asks. The cat just nuzzles into his hand and then rubs up against his side. Taemin scritches behind his ears fondly. His light golden brown coat looks especially lovely today in the sun.

“No food yet, kitty,” he mumbles, petting down his back lazily. He knows this little shit isn’t above whining until Taemin feeds him, but Taemin also knows that he is perfectly capable of nabbing a bird or something whenever he wants. He’s busy and the cat can wait until he’s done to be given food on a badly handmade ceramic platter.

“You can have a treat, though,” he says, and pulls out the treat packet he keeps in his garden bag. He ignores the cat’s smug little kitty grin when he pulls out a treat and holds it out in his hand. He’s cute and he knows that Taemin knows that and can’t resist it. “Little shit,” Taemin murmurs fondly. The cat noms up the treat, rubs against Taemin’s leg with a happy purr, and then slinks up to his front porch and into Taemin’s lounge chair. Taemin rolls his eyes and goes back to his weeding.

When he’s done he gathers up his pile and dumps it into his compost bin, brushes dirt off of his jeans, and pulls off his gloves. Grimacing at his sweaty hands, he wipes them on his sides as he hops up his porch steps. The kitty is still there in his chair, all curled up and having a nice nap. Taemin heads inside, tosses his gloves and bag on the floor next to the door, grabs a water bottle from the fridge, and scoots back outside.

“Shoo,” he says to the cat as he nears his chair. The cat looks up at him lazily, blinks slowly, and only slips off of the chair when Taemin makes gentle flappy hands at him. Then, once Taemin has sat himself down and gotten comfortable, the cat hops right back up into his lap and curls up. Taemin snorts softly, grinning to himself as he pets his back with one hand and checks his phone with the other. He loves this cat.

Even when he decides to be a little nuisance after a while of just sitting together and relaxing, standing up in Taemin’s lap and nuzzling all over his stomach, and then his chest, and then putting his little paws on Taemin’s shirt to press his face into Taemin’s neck. Taemin laughs, tickled by his fur and whiskers, and puts his hands on the cat’s side.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he says softly. “Chill.” The cat doesn’t chill; he nuzzles closer, purring loudly as he rubs his face all over Taemin’s neck and cheek. Taemin sighs as he pets his back. The little bub gets all clingy like this sometimes and doesn’t let Taemin go until he’s sufficiently fluffed up and pampered.

“What do you want, huh?” Taemin asks, petting him gently with both hands, one after the other. “Brat. C’mere.” He picks the cat up, tutting softly in warning before he even tries to cling to Taemin’s shirt with his claws, and holds him up just to put him back down on his knees. At least here he can pet him easier, without cat fur in his mouth. “What?” he asks, smiling at how he tries to wiggle from Taemin’s hold. “I’m paying attention to you,” he says. Scratching behind his ears with one hand, he wiggles his fingers gently against the side of his tum with the other.

“How else am I supposed to love you?” he asks. “I’m not a cat. I’m not going to lick you clean.” He boops under the kitty’s little chin with a finger, then scritches gently. “Want me to kiss you?” he asks. “I’ll kiss you, look. Mwah.” He leans forward and gently presses his lips to the top of the cat’s head. “There. Now you’re all loved–”

He’s interrupted in his lazy murmurs by the cat making a strange cat noise he’s never heard before, and then by the cat literally glowing in his hands.

He blinks, extremely confused, as the cat glows brighter with light orange and mint green light. Then, as if that wasn’t fucking weird enough, he floats–up off of Taemin’s lap, out of his hands, and just hovers a few inches above Taemin’s knees, soft tail twitching in the wind.

“What the fuck,” Taemin says loudly, and then all at once there’s a bright flash of light that has Taemin scrunching his eyes shut and cursing again.

When he opens his eyes, that cat is gone; instead, sprawled gracelessly over his porch and looking even more confused and bewildered than Taemin, is a naked human.

Their skin is the same sunkissed golden color as the cat’s fur, a little mole sits between their collarbones in the same spot as the cat’s little white patch, and their eyes are the same exact shade of dark warm brown that the cat’s were. Taemin decides to be polite and not to look below their waist as they blink back up at him.

“What the fuck,” he says again.

“I can explain,” the human says.

Taemin sure fucking hopes they can.

~

“This is them?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Like, really–”

_“Yes,_  Taemin, I know a witch hut when I see one.”

“A witch hut.” Taemin looks over the quaint little apartment quickly: plastic fall flowers playfully stuck to the door, a hanging aloe plant over the porch, a box of dirty shoes and towels pushed under a tea table. He looks back to Jonghyun with a cocked brow; the ex-cat huffs and rubs the back of his head.

“Look, I hung around here a lot when they first cursed me trying to get them to change me back,” he mumbles. “I know this is them.”

“If you say so,” Taemin shrugs. He walks up the little steps and pushes the doorbell on the side. Jonghyun stands close next to and a little behind him, slipping his hands around Taemin’s forearm to hold anxiously. Taemin can’t help but smile to himself. Cute clingy kitty, cute clingy human.

The door opens after another few moments and they’re met with someone with dark black hair pushed back from their forehead and buzzed short on the sides. Taemin isn’t sure which one she is; Jonghyun said Gwiboon was the loud one and Eunsook was the smug one. He smiles as friendly as he can anyway and holds the open flaps of his jacket for lack of anything better to do with his hands.

“Hi,” he says. “I’m Taemin, and this is–”

He doesn’t get to finish his introduction because as he spoke, the witch glanced over both him and Jonghyun behind him, and when her eyes landed on Jonghyun, her face split wide into a grin. She interrupts Taemin with a loud cackle, throwing her head back as she turns around and walks back inside. She pushes the front door open further and flaps a hand at them in a becking sort of way as she goes, so with a bewildered look at a very blushie and pouty Jonghyun, Taemin tentatively steps inside.

He’s guessing that one was Gwiboon. They follow her laughter through the house into a living room, where she’s slouched herself into a cushy bean bag pile and is still giggling into her hands. On the couch, another witch looks up, this one with a rumpled white dress shirt and round glasses tucked neatly into mussed light brown hair. As soon as she sees Jonghyun she smiles too, a knowing, smug little smirk that makes Taemin confirm her as Eunsook.

“Oh,” she says. “The catcaller is back.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Taemin says. That is new information to him and he turns to look at Jonghyun accusingly. Jonghyun is very intently not looking back at him, face scrunched up in a cringe even as he curls his fingers into Taemin’s arm. Taemin wiggles his arm away a his brows rise into his hair. What the fuck.

“Oh my god, he didn’t tell them,” Gwiboon says, and her following laughter is even louder than before. Taemin looks over to watch Eunsook turning around on the couch to rest her chin on the back cushions and raise one eyebrow.

“What did he tell you was the reason we cursed him into a cat?” she asks. Taemin glances back at Jonghyun’s long and loud sigh. He has his face in his hands and Taemin turns back to Eunsook with a snort.

“He just said ‘reasons,’” he says. He was a little more preoccupied with helping his six year cat suddenly turned human to ask him to extrapolate. “I wouldn’t have bothered with this if I knew why,” he mutters. Like. Ew. Suddenly he’s on the witches’ side.

“Ask him what he said specifically,” Eunsook grins.

“Okay,” Jonghyun says loudly. He huffs and holds his hands out, frowning between all three of them. “ _Maybe_  I used to suffer under toxic masculinity and  _maybe_  I was a super fucking closeted aro enby and  _maybe_  I had a lot of shitty dudebro friends that I couldn’t _stop_  being friends with for lack of any other friends and for _fear_  of _violence_  and _maybe_  when they started harassing people on the street I half-assed a comment or two just so they wouldn’t turn on me and  _maybe_  it would’ve been better for  _you two_ if I stood up to them but  _maybe_  I didn’t feel like potentially outing myself that day,” he hisses. He scowls at the two witches, but then sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “Maybe I was a big scaredy cat,” he mumbles. He pouts at the carpet, shuffling it with the too-big shoe Taemin gave him to wear to this visit. Taemin snorts again, but also feels less gross on the inside. That’s good enough for him.

“Too bad, so sad,” Gwi drawls from her bean pile. “You didn’t see me being a fuckboy when I was a tiny scared closeted baby.”

“Wow, good for you, you’re so morally superior to the rest of us in every way,” Jonghyun snaps. Taemin muffles a giggle into his hand while Eunsook rolls her eyes. “Why didn’t you curse them too?” Jonghyun whines. “Why only me?”

“Oh, no, we got them too,” Eunsook says brightly. She glances to some decorations on a shelf next to the tv. Taemin follows her gaze to many neat little rows of cute ceramic cats. Oh, he thinks.

“Oh,” Jonghyun says.

“We went easy on you because we knew you were a tiny sprout in a field of weeds,” Eunsook shrugs. She turns to Taemin with a little grin. “We may or may not stalk our targets for a little bit before we curse them just to figure out what cat statue would fit them best,” she tells him. Taemin nods approvingly. He’s never met a witch before, but he feels like if he was ever to be cursed, he’d want one that would take that extra step for personalization.

“Honestly, we did you a favor,” Gwiboon says. “Are you or are you not extremely fucking catkin?”

“I mean,” Jonghyun says. “Maybe, yeah, but–”

“And are you or are you not extremely ro repulsed?”

“Well, yeah, but–”

  
“So how was turning you into a cat that could only be changed back by true love’s kiss a problem?”

“Okay, yeah, maybe it was a dream come true, and even though I’m here to ask you to turn me into a cat again anyway, like. Just. Fuck you anyway,” Jonghyun grumbles.

“Wait, you want us to make you a cat  _again_?” Eunsook asks. Finally she doesn’t look amused by everything anymore and is frowning in confusion at Jonghyun. It’s Taemin that answers though, as he nods and steps forward.

“He liked being a cat,” he says, “and, I mean. I liked him being my cat.” He pouts, reaching for Jonghyun’s wrist to hold up his hand. “Look at this,” he says. “This isn’t an adorable little kitty paw. How is this supposed to cheer me up after a long day?” He drops Jonghyun’s hand. “I don’t need a roommate, I need a garden cat that purrs in my ear and nuzzles my tum.” He’s never gonna find another one like Jonghyun in a million years.

“And how am I supposed to just go back to being a human after so long?” Jonghyun whines. “It’s been six years, and it’s not like I have any documentation or anything anymore, like–the government and my family probably think I’m  _dead,_  but I don’t like thinking about that because it makes me cry, and–” He takes a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath and then let it out in a short huff. When he opens his eyes, he’s pouting again. “I just wanna be a cat again,” he says. “Cats don’t need to have genders, and when I’m plagued by my soul crushing depression Taemin can pet me and make me feel better, and he has the softest little bush that’s a great anxiety nest, and no one gets mad at a cat for being an insomniac and sleeping whenever I can, and I don’t have to have my soul crushed any further by capitalism, and. Please?” he whines.

Taemin watches Eunsook raise her brows at him, then turn to glance at Gwiboon. Gwiboon snorts and runs her fingers through her hair.

“I think you’re forgetting that we don’t like you,” she says. Jonghyun huffs and crosses his arms, a petulant little bub. Taemin rolls his eyes and scoots forward to lean his hands on the back of the couch.

“What about me then?” he asks. “I’ve never been a fuckboy and I want my cat back. I can’t afford all the shit that comes with adopting a real cat. What am I gonna do, try to seduce some random stray?” It wouldn’t be the same. A real stray cat wouldn’t understand him when he tells them to shoo off of his lounge chair, for one. And they would probably have an average cat lifespan, too, and now that Taemin is thinking about it, he really can’t handle death at all. He wants his magic cat back. Even if he did used to be a fuckboy.

He does that thing where he nibbles on his lower lip and scrunches his eyebrows because he knows it makes him look adorable and pitiful. It works, he thinks; Gwiboon looks at him and sighs and rolls over in her beanbag pile. Eunsook dosen’t look away, but she does snort and reach up to poke his cheek.

“I mean,” she says. “They did fall in love with a cat and break the curse. They’re a good human.”

“Did we make it a rule in the curse that it could only be broken by good humans?” Gwiboon asks. Her voice is muffled into the beans.

“I think it was only by good human women,” Eunsook says. “Because, you know, the misogyny thing.”

“I’m a girl sometimes,” Taemin says.

“Neat,” Gwiboon says. She rolls over and shrugs, flicking her hair out of her eyes. “You’re too cute and I wanna squish you and buy you things. I guess we can make him a cat again, for you,” she says.

_“Nice,_ ” Taemin hisses. Jonghyun hops in excitement behind him and clings to his arm again to nuzzle his shoulder happily.

~

“So…,” Taemin says. He sips his water bottle and looks across his kitchen table at Jonghyun sipping another water bottle. “They said you just had to think about changing to switch back and forth?” Eunsook and Gwiboon wouldn’t let him into their little spell room when they put their magic on Jonghyun again, but apparently they made him into a shapeshifter and explained all of the details to him then. Jonghyun nods, lower lip puffed out as he stares at his hand, opening and closing his fingers.

“Mmhmm,” he hums. “You really don’t mind me living in here for a few days while I get the hang of it?” he asks.

“Would you rather get the hang of it with them or in my garden?” Taemin asks, cocking a brow. Jonghyun blushes a faint pink, but chuckles all the same, shrugging and leaning back.

“I guess not,” he says. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Taemin says. He wouldn’t have offered if he didn’t mean it. “Do, um,” he says slowly. “Would you wanna be… an inside cat? From now on?” He squishes his water bottle gently for lack of anything better to do with his hands. This feels a little bit like asking a whole entire human to live with him, not one that’s going to be a cat for the majority of the rest of his life, but he still feels like he should offer. Jonghyun shakes his head, though, glancing out of his window.

“I like it outside,” he says. “That little towel nest you made me in your shed is so warm and comfy at night and in the rain.”

“Oh, good,” Taemin breathes. “I‘d been feeling kind of bad that I couldn’t buy you like, an actual soft kitty bed or whatever.” Jonghyun laughs at that, giggles into his water bottle.

“I’m not a luxury cat,” he grins. “I wouldn’t say no to an extra fuzzy blanket or a little stuffed animal friend, though,” he says. Taemin snorts.

“Sure,” he says. He can do that. “Any other requests?” he asks, cocking a brow. Jonghyun smothers a guilty little smile in his hand, then looks at his fingers again, squints at his nails. Taemin thinks he’s trying to extend and retract them like he could with his kitty claws. After another few seconds he shrugs and takes another sip of his water.

“Not really?” he says. “You’re a good human and I liked being your cat.”

“Oh,” Taemin says. He smiles wide, trying not to look too proud and probably failing at it. He’s a good human and a good cat parent. That’s all he ever wanted out of life. “No music requests or anything?” he asks. He can’t imagine that he already has all of Jonghyun’s favorite bands and songs in his playlists for when he does work outside. Jonghyun has to miss some from when he had his own control over what he listened to. Jonghyun hums, squints at the ceiling, thinks.

“Less metal, more ballads,” he shrugs. Taemin snorts, shaking his head fondly. He hates ballads and loves metal.

“Compromise for slow but still rad guitar solos?” he offers. Jonghyun grins back.

“Sure,” he says. “And I know you watch Pokémon every week inside on your laptop. Can you watch it outside with me instead? I really miss–”

He stops himself short by suddenly just turning into a cat. Taemin blinks, watching the cat make a very confused kitty noise and fall to plop into the seat of the chair. He hears a little thud and many skitters next and deduces that Jonghyun fell off of the chair and onto the tile of his kitchen floor. He leans down to peep under the table to confirm and finds him half tangled in the sweater he was wearing two seconds ago.

“Uh,” he says. Jonghyun looks at him with big kitty eyes, ears flat and tail twitching in embarrassment. A grin grows wide on Taemin’s face as Jonghyun quickly slinks away into his living room, and by the time he comes back as a naked human with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, Taemin has his head on the table and can’t stop giggling.

“Thanks again for letting me stay in here while I get the hang of this,” Jonghyun says loudly. Taemin can’t stop laughing long enough to reply.

**Author's Note:**

> #honestly the most unrealistic part of this au is that taem owns a whole house all by himself   
> #homeowning??? in this economy????   
> #anyway ye jongs a lil shapeshifter now nd hes a cat like 99% of the time except when he wants to Talk to taem   
> #but usually he can just make kitty noises and wiggle and taem gets what he means   
> #taem gets him a fuzzy blankie and a cute lil stuffed animal pupper friend and he is a cute happy wiggly lil kitty   
> #taems neighbors pet him sometimes and call him a girl and he gets even more fluffy and wiggly  
> #and the high schol kid that walks by taems house on the way to the bus stop twice a day calls him a genderless voidcat and he Nuts   
> #taem watches pokemon outside with him and pets him and jong nuzzles taem and purrs and is a good kitty   
> #and its good they lov each other v v much   
> #new pokemon games come out and taem plays outside with jong in his lap and jong meows v loudly until taem catches the new cat pokemon   
> #and then doesnt let him leave it in the pc   
> #''''''shes in ur party now and forever''''' ''''did u rly turn into a human just to tell me that''''''   
> #also taem: nothing has been more validating to my enby identity than the ability to break a curse thank u cat witches   
> #gwisook: finger pistols nd a winkwonk


End file.
